Trails to the Past of Iowa is excepting any donations of genealogy materials that you may have such as marriage announcements, news articles, old obituaries, births, (you do not need the birth certificate) just the information, and biographies.  If you have any of these items please contact me Marie Miller the Iowa State Administrator.

Muscatine County was formed in December 1836 as a part of Wisconsin Territory, partitioned from Des Moines County, which had been organized two years previous. One history suggests that the county was named for Muscatine Island in the Mississippi River. The island lies opposite Muscatine County and was believed to be named after the Mascouten tribe, Algonquian-speaking Native Americans who lived in the area before being driven west by settler encroachment and other tribes.

Colonel George Davenport of Illinois sent three representatives into the territory in 1833 to establish a trade post. They were the first European Americans to settle there. In the same year, James W. Casey and John Vanatta came to the area. They opened a supply depot for steamboats on June 1, 1833, and named it Casey's Woodpile (since steamboats used wood as fuel). Muscatine County officially became a part of Iowa Territory on July 4, 1836, when Iowa Territory was established by partitioning off this area from Wisconsin Territory. The first public land sale was held in November 1838. One year later, officials began construction of the first courthouse and associated jail. A second jail, known as the "Old Jail", was built in 1857.

The first courthouse was destroyed by fire on December 23, 1864. By 1866 a new replacement stood at the same site. The present courthouse was built in the twentieth century, being first used on September 26, 1907.

On Line Data

Cities     Atalissa     Blue Grass     Conesville     Durant     Fruitland     Muscatine     Nichols     Stockton     Walcott     West Liberty     Wilton Unincorporated communities     Ardon     Cranston     Fairport     Hinkeyville     Midway Beach     Montpelier     Moscow     Petersburg     Port Allen Townships     Bloomington     Cedar     Fruitland     Fulton     Goshen     Lake     Montpelier     Moscow     Orono     Pike     Seventy-Six     Sweetland     Wapsinonoc     Wilton

Muscatine County Court House Barclay Barn 1875

Adjacent counties
    Cedar County (north)
    Johnson County (northwest)
    Louisa County (south, southwest)
    Rock Island County, Illinois (east), across the Mississippi River
    Scott County (northeast)

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